We need to understand now more than ever how to deal with learning. You could in today’s world of technology completely learn the wrong thing. Fake news is a really a thing. We have to be careful in our quest to improve our worth through learning as individuals and within the communities we work/play in. Learning is a key to success.
We either learn or we can become overrun and left behind by those that are continually learning. We need to think clearly and quickly in most cases with little room to research. As I’ve said in other posts, you either make time to learn or someone will take your time for something else. More than likely something that you will not enjoy or like. We need to make ourselves a resource. A library for others where they can check us out for what they’re trying to research and overcome.
One of the best ways to be known as a teacher and resource for learning is to shake things up. I’m constantly looking for ways to overwrite my own system which is a key to productive learning. I want to become useful for something people haven’t even discovered a need for yet. Assumptions are the where I begin. I love it when a group holds an assumption and I am the one that sees it differently. I’ll challenge group assumptions all day long. Not only is it a challenge for me, it pushes them to think differently too. Observing and managing the way we think is essential to actual learning. Keeping an open mind, be critical. Your best learning and unlocks can come from challenging yourself to override assumptions. This applies to personal assumptions you have about what you can or cannot achieve too!
Composure and keeping it healthy is a good thing. In learning though, composure or more importantly our emotions that create a spike in our composure coming to the surface is something to tap into for learning. Do not separate your rational thinking from your emotional thinking. Bring them together. It engages the entire brain in problem solving and learning by engaging both. Intuition and innovation live I find more in the emotional states of my thinking. I use the rational to plan next steps to bring what my “gut” is telling me is the right direction to move in. Not all emotions cause interference in our thinking. Most will give you a way forward if you really take the pause to learn from them.
I embrace the emotions that help me learn at a more evolutionary or enhanced way. Examples in the ways I do this are expressing my gratitude at the end of the day in my journal when I feel it. Smiling more when I run against pain or exhaustion to elevate my the negative thoughts about quitting I might have as I get challenged. Positive outlooks can ease learning processes to take hold more successfully. Negative outlooks do the exact opposite. The age old difference between a fixed mindset and open one lay in how our outlook appears in our minds.
Creating an environment around us that fosters learning is key too. I usually park myself for the real deep learning times in my bliss station at home. Parking at the local coffee shop to do the learning and writing for IBtP would not be a great place to accomplish my goals. To much noise and interference around me. We overlook this a lot. Car rides are some of the best times for learning for me. It’s the perfect time to engage in a podcast or audio book and just learn while I drive. So few underutilize the best places to learn. We overlook these places of learning because we’re to busy. The best way to describe a learning environment is a place where as a learner you have autonomy and control over what you can learn or how. This can’t happen in a busy Starbucks where a coffee press is going to wake you out of the zone of learning every 10 minutes or where someone might recognize you, come to say “Hi”, and throw you out of your creative zone.
Conversations are some of the best places to learn. But only if your an “asker” versus a “teller.” Tellers like to believe that they are sharing group knowledge but come off as know it alls or smarter than everyone else. Shifting to conversations your in and probing or asking, you find out more. To do this is hard, especially when you think you know more than the other person. Engaging in a humble approach of inquiries puts you in a posture to actively listen more. The extra? It shows the other person in the conversation that what they think is important to you and you value what they are expressing. This is how as I stated above you become a trusted resource. Because you listen to learn more than you listen to respond.
At the end of the day everything above works for me and are my best practices. They may not suit you. That’s okay. I need you to challenge yourself to find your own. Find your own path to learning. I’ve taken from all the different books on everything I’ve learned, crafted my own way to learn that suits me, and that is what works for me. This is called design thinking. A methodology I found some of the most creative minds on the planet explore, discover, and make new products from as habits. You’ll need to follow a path that is right for you.
Finding a way to continually learn, continually learn right, is hard. To learn well as an individual or as part of a community we need to approach it with some intelligence and not blindly. That means creating some of the best conditions possible in your still time and on the go time where learning can be easy for you as well as rewarding.
Hope you’re enjoying the learning series this month so far! Appreciate the views. Hope the week has felt great!
✌🏻 Shawn
Welcome to In-Between the Pages 
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